Edward J. Cleary Award

The Cleary Award is given to an individual who is an outstanding performer in the management of environmental protection enterprises conducted under either public or private auspices and has demonstrated exemplary professional conduct, personal leadership, originality in devising new environmental protection techniques, and sensitivity and responsiveness to social, economic, and political factors in environmental protection.

Click here for the full criteria and nomination forms.

2025 Edward J. Cleary Award Recipient

Kevin D. White, Ph.D.

Kevin D. White, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus and former Chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of South Alabama.  Specializing in environmental engineering, his research has focused on small community and onsite wastewater systems, decentralized water and wastewater infrastructure, and constructed wetlands treatment systems for both wastewater and stormwater.  

Dr. White led an EPA National Decentralized Wastewater Demonstration project in Mobile, demonstrating sewer mining and treated wastewater reuse in public parks back in 2005.  In 2018, he was instrumental in forming the Consortium for Alabama Rural Water/Wastewater Management that brought together academics, regulators, congressional delegation representatives, private industry, and others to help facilitate wastewater solutions in the Alabama Black Belt.  

He is currently working on several funded research projects focused on finding affordable solutions for wastewater infrastructure in the rural, underserved Alabama Black Belt, that include decentralized infrastructure components.  He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Water Environment Federation.

Past Winners

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